One of the most interesting storylines in Roma’s summer transfer market was the potential sale of one of last season’s big summer signings: Artem Dovbyk. Dovbyk was signed for €30.5 million from La Liga side Girona on August 2, 2025. While Dovbyk wasn’t yet a household name in Serie A circles, he was coming off an outstanding debut season for the Spanish team, scoring 24 league goals on the way to winning the La Liga golden boot. Those two dozen goals helped Girona finish in 3rd place and convinced
Florent Ghisolfi to drop a hefty sum to have the Ukrainian international lead Daniele De Rossi’s attack after Romelu Lukaku’s loan expired.
Despite producing a decent return of 17 goals across all competitions (12 in Serie A), Dovbyk’s debut season in the Italian capital did not meet the expectations of many tifosi. With the appointment of Gian Piero Gasperini as manager and new sporting director Ricky Massara, Dovbyk surprisingly found himself on the transfer list. Initially, it seemed to be just media speculation given how awkwardly Dovbyk fit into Gasperini’s tactics. However, as summer went on, the likelihood of Dovbyk departing appeared more realistic. Finally, a swap deal with AC Milan for Santiago Gimenez looked close to completion before collapsing on the final day of the transfer window.
That means Dovbyk is here to stay for now and will probably play a key role for the Giallorossi when the schedule picks up after the international break. While some Giallorossi fans might have been glad to see Dovbyk leave after just one season in the Capital, Roma could do a lot worse than a former La Liga top scorer as an alternative to Evan Ferguson.
Zach Lowy of Breaking the Lines believes the Giallorossi will benefit more from keeping Dovbyk in town rather than sending him packing. Lowy recently spoke with Columbus Crew player Yehven Cheverko, who’s also Dovbyk’s teammate on the Ukrainian National Team. So, we brought Lowy in to share what he learned about Dovbyk from Cheverko and to discuss how he envisions the Ukrainian fitting into Gasperini’s Roma moving forward.
Let’s start with your conversation with Cheverko. What kind of insight did you get about Artem Dovbyk?
Cheberko cited Dovbyk as one of the toughest opponents he has faced alongside the likes of Olivier Giroud, Kylian Mbappe and Cucho Hernandez. Cheberko stated, “He’s so good, and he showed this at Girona, which is why Roma bought him immediately. He’s shown that he’s one of the best strikers in the world by making the top 30 Ballon d’Or nominees, he’s shown the ability to score the goals, to hold up the ball, and to help the team win games in the biggest stage. I think it just was harder for him to move to Italy and adapt to a different style of play as well as the language barrier. He’s a great striker, he can show Roma even more if they give him time to demonstrate his ability. Maybe they’ll move on from him and he’ll find a team where he belongs and where the coach bets on him. He will pay it back because he’s such a talented striker.”
What makes you think Roma would have been better off keeping Dovbyk rather than swapping him for Santiago Giménez or one of the other rumored names?
Unlike Gimenez, who has only shown his quality in the Eredivisie and Liga MX, Dovbyk has actually excelled in one of the best leagues in the world. Whereas Gimenez has been underwhelming in his Milan spell as well as in Mexico’s last few high-stakes matches, Dovbyk is coming off a better peak and a more impressive one in 2023/24.
He’s a great striker, he can show Roma even more if they give him time to demonstrate his ability.
Zach lowy
It’s clear that he hasn’t yet translated that to Italy, but overall, we’re looking at a player who is one of the best strikers in Europe on his day.
Dovbyk doesn’t seem like the most natural fit for Gian Piero Gasperini’s tactics. How do you see him fitting in?
We saw a similar situation with Duvan Zapata a few years back at Atalanta, a powerful, speedy center forward who didn’t quite seem suited to it, but instead, he took Italy and Europe by storm. I reckon we could see something similar here. Dovbyk will be better adjusted to his surroundings and should be able to get back to his best under Gasperini and spearhead the attack with his fantastic hold-up play and powerful shots.
Is there any scenario where you can see him and Evan Ferguson playing off of each other or is it more of a matter of a straight rotation of the two?
They’re two very similar strikers – you don’t often see two bulky target men playing together in a front two, so I think we’re going to see a rotation between Ferguson and Dovbyk. All things considered, it should be a really fascinating battle between two players who were considered potential world-beaters just a few years ago, but who are also coming off a difficult 2024/25 season under a different manager.
Zach is a freelance soccer journalist who covers European soccer and MLS for RG, FourFourTwo, The Independent, and various other outlets.
